The Challenge: Ride or Dies | Season 38 Episode 3 - "A Bumpy Ride"

Spoiler Alert!

Hello people!

Back with a new episode of The Challenge and... Fessy is back. 

That's right, we weren't able to have that many episodes with Fessy going under the radar. And in this episode he was actually the main event. Not only they had a little story of how he wants to go by his first name Faysal, to shed light on his culture and what his name really means (a foreshadowing of how the episode would go), which I completely understand, although I will probably keep calling him Fessy, but yes... He was the winner of this week's challenge. I really wanted things to go down another path but... No luck this time.

This season I'm facing something that has never happened to me - I pretty much like everyone. I like most of the rookies this season, and I do have a soft spot for the rookies, but Bananas is part of the Vets and there's actually a few Vets in this season that I love, so it was hard for me to side with someone in this episode.

I've talked about the daily challenge, which Fessy and Moriah won, but two rookies were so good in this challenge - Ravyn/Johnny and Horacio/Olivia. Clearly the rookies are stepping up this season and that's why Fessy and Moriah decided to pick all rookie teams to maybe go into elimination - picking Ravyn/Johnny (the second best of the daily challenge) to go straight into elimination. And then it was time for the draw.

Something really dumb happened the night before with Tommy and Analyse. I actually like them but they really weren't smart about their game - they went to both Olivia/Horacio and Colleen/Kim and made a deal with them, saying that if they picked the Safe dagger, they would save them. Guess what?! They did pick the Safe dagger and they had to choose someone to go against Ravyn/Johnny. Just that was not smart at all, but what they did next was even worse.

The elimination was clearly a Double Hall Brawl so you would think Johnny and Ravyn would do pretty well and, because of that, you should pick Colleen and Kim - that way Johnny and Ravyn would stay, be a number on the Rookie Alliance (a team that does perform really well and wins challenges) and send home the team that they basically scr*w over. But no... They picked Olivia and Horacio to go into elimination and the worst case scenario (for Tommy and Analyse) happened - Oliva and Horacio won. To me, it was the best because I do prefer them over Ravyn and Johnny, but for Tommy and Analyse it wasn't. Now the team they scr*w stayed and they sent home a strong rookie team... Really not smart.

That was pretty much it in terms of game. I guess the only other thing I need to mention is Jordan and Aneesa getting into the game. It was major for everyone, yes, but it was even major for Tori, and her conversation with Jordan was actually really powerful. I never really liked Jordan but since him and Tori got together (and now broken up) I can see he has changed... It must have been really difficult for Tori to have Jordan come into the game without her knowing (because he knew she was there) and having that talk... It really was a powerful moment and I had to talk about it.

Of course, this episode ended with another hint at another (and I think last) new team to come into the game. I don't know why they kept it a surprise because we all know it's Darrell and Veronica so... Really unecessary, but I guess not everyone is up to date with the cast (in that case, sorry for the spoiler, but it is in their Instagram so...).

But I guess that's it from me. Not as eventful as the last episode but I'm still excited for the next ones. Next episode is a heights challenge so that's going to be fun. Let's see what happens! Also let me know your thoughts on this episode as well as predictions for future episodes - do you already have a feeling of who might win this season? Tell me in the comments but please, if you do know spoilers of who wins, don't share it because I do not want to know - predictions only, please! I'll see you in my next rant!

Love,

Daniela.

American Horror Story: NYC | Season 11 Episode 2 - "Thank You for Your Service"

Spoiler Alert!

Hello!

As promised, here I am with episode 2 of American Horror Story: NYC. Unfortunately, there's not much to talk about this episode.

I sort of predicted this but, to me, this episode wasn't as interesting as the previous one. Some things happen but, in my opinion, nothing to really further the plot.

We sort of find out who kidnapped Gino, who's then freed because of his Marine tattoo, we see a bit more of Dr. Wells involvement in all of this (this whole thing is probably about AIDS) and we see the police not really doing much about what is happening.

Honestly, this episode was kind of messy with a lot of things thrown that aren't really that well explained (which I assume is because they have to build things up) but it just felt like messy writting.

The last interesting thing that happened was, while out in a bar, Gino and Patrick basically witness the killer stabing a man in the neck and, later on, the police discovering body parts in an alleyway strung up on meat hooks.

There's already a bunch of ideas being thrown around, one of them being the fact that Big Daddy might be a ghost, which I could see happen, after all, this is American Horror Story, as well as the possibility of there being two killers, which I also believe.

Ultimately, if this is about AIDS and the conspiracy of how the government maybe created the virus, I don't see why there's multiple killers but... we never know... 

That's it from me, to be honest. As I said, not much happened in this episode but I'm curious to see where this leads...

Let me know what you think is happening - do you think there's multiple killers? or is this just about AIDS? Tell me everything in the comments and I'll talk to you later with new rants!

Love,

Daniela.

American Horror Story: NYC | Season 11 Episode 1 - "Something's Coming"

Spoiler Alert!

Hello people!

American Horror Story is back and, of course, I'm back to talk about it.

Reviewing AHS is an interesting task... You never really know what you're going to get each season and, for the past years, people just started loosing faith in the show (it's actually so surprising how this keeps being renewed! I guess people just keep watching it.) and that's sort of what happened to me.

In past seasons I was sort of excited about the themes. I was still afraid that they would mess things up, which they usually did with their last episodes, but for the first time, I was just not feeling this season - which I guess was a good thing. For the first time they didn't do that thing of hinting at the theme and giving little trailers for people to guess... They did ask people what they wanted to see but nothing really came out of that (unless that was just them really asking for ideas for future seasons, who knows). Instead, they just dropped the theme and title suddenly and nothing else. They gave us some character posters but, truth be told, NYC is not exactly a very clarifying theme, so I really didn't know what to expect from this season.

As I said, not knowing and having low expectations was sort of nice. Not that I'm saying this season looks amazing, because it doesn't, but at least it's a change of pace - literally. 

This season is all about a serial killer targeting gay men and, because of that, we sort of have a crime thriller mystery instead of a full on horror show about ghosts, or spirits, or demons. It's something more subtle, which I enjoyed.

However, obviously there's some thing that are just repetitive and just annoying. I like that Ryan Murphy is staying true to himself and having a story focused on the gay community but most of his shows are just overly sexualized and not that it bothers me, it's just that it's the same thing over and over again in all of his shows. If it wasn't for the slow thriller aspect of this season (at least, the vibe I'm getting for this first episode) this would just be your typical Ryan Murphy show - because yes, even his other shows that aren't AHS are like this.

Anyway, so we follow a bunch of characters that are part of the gay community and that one way or another are 'connected' to this serial killer - there's the police officer, the reporter, the photographer that is somewhat a psychic as well... There's a lot of cliché characters, now that I think about it, but they are well stablished in this first episode and the story seems coherent (as of now) so let's see where this leads.

At the same time, there's another story that doesn't really look connected to this serial killer one - it's the plot revolving around Billie Lourd's character, Dr. Hannah Wells, who's doing some research on a virus and commands her team to shoot and kill a herd of deer on Fire Island in order to contain this virus. I can see where this might be connected to the main plot (sort of a metaphor for being gay being a virus and someone out there killing all these men) but I hope I'm wrong and they do something different with this. Let's see...

But I guess that's it from me for this first episode. I'm going to watch the second one right away so expect a new rant pretty soon. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts on this new season and I'll talk to you really soon!

Love,

Daniela.

The Challenge: Ride or Dies | Season 38 Episode 2 - "Friend or Faux"

Spoiler Alert!

Hello everybody!

Back with a brand new The Challenge rant and what a ride (pun intended)! I don't know if I'm just being really biased but this season is already looking amazing! And it feels like it will have a lot more to offer so I'm excited for the next episodes! Well, needless to say that this episode was really exciting as well!

We started of with a proper introduction to Bananas and Nany (not that they really needed one) and, at the same time, they hinted us at some of the things that were to come. We saw a little of Devin and Tori, a lot of Turbo and bits here and there of Jay, Michelle and some of the other rookies.

Moving on to the daily challenge, we are hit right away with some news - Emmy decided to leave the game, therefore Nam was 'eliminated' as well. That really was a bummer because we all wanted to see more of Nam and it looks like he just can't catch a break! Every single time he comes into The Challenge, he leaves because of his partners... The Challenge really isn't his game.

After that, we see the actual challenge and we start with a bang! Horacio and Olivia are first and they smash it! Then, everyone else after them completely fails, including Turbo, who talked a big game and then... Nothing. There was a montage of everyone that wasn't able to finish the challenge until it was time for Tori and Devin, who obviously were able to. Lastly, it was time for Banany which, even though I'm not a big fan of Nany, it's obviously the team I'm rooting for. Also, obviously they finished the challenge. But, that wasn't the end of it. TJ surprised everyone, once again, and brought a new/old team back - Kaycee and Kenny. Because Nam and Emmy left and I guess Kaycee and Kenny were still around (because the only reason they left was because they tested positive for Covid) they came back. And they also were able to finish the daily challenge. And it actually looked like they were the fasted ones to do it, luckily they weren't - Bananas and Nany were the winners, showing everyone why Bananas is the ultimate champion of The Challenge! 

As we should have been expecting from giving Bananas the power, the started stiring the pot right away - but in a smart way, not just to create waves. He saw how the elimination plays out (with the daggers and all that) and his plan was to send in teams that were friends and were working together, that way that would should people where everyone stands and maybe break some alliances. However, one team just had to be put in even though they weren't really part of any alliance - Turbo and Tamara.

Turbo really pissed me off in this episode and he just had it coming. The only person (besides Tamara) that he was friends with in the game was Nany and he also attacked when she genuinely just wanted to talk to him. Obviously he was chosen and everyone knew he would be the one to go straight into elimination. I sort of felt bad for Tamara because she looked like a good person, but she was partnered with Turbo so... The other teams to possibly go into elimination were Jay/Michele, Johnny/Ravyn and Olivia/Horacio. All of them were picked for a reason and, although all of them were a bit mad that they were picked, I feel like everyone knew why. But ultimately, what Bananas wanted was to break that rookie alliance - which he sort of acomplished.

When it got to the actual elimination, obviously Turbo and Tamara were the ones that Nany and Bananas picked and then Jay and Michele got the SAFE dagger, which was the best came scenario for me, to be honest. I'm kind of sad that Jay is not on Bananas side (because, believe it or not, Bananas and Devin are now working together and that makes me happy) but at least he was safe straight away - now he just had to pick who else to save, which was sort of easy, in my opinion - just pick your actual friend, which was what he ended up doing, sending Horacio and Olivia into elimination.

The elimination was pretty simple though - a straight up Memory Game. On top of that, no one wanted Turbo back in the house so, because of that, everyone helped Olivia and Horacio and, needless to say, they won and everyone got what they wanted! Bananas won the first daily challenge he was in, Bananas and Devin are working together, Jay was safe right away and Turbon went home - I couldn't be happier with how everything worked in this episode!

Lastly, they had to end with a bang! They hinted in the beginning of the episode when Tori was talking about her break up with Jordan and... Yes, Jordan showed up right at the end of the episode - alone. We know that he's partnered with Aneesa, which is going to be even more chaotic, having in mind that Aneesa is best friend's with Tori and Jordan is Tori's ex so... It's going to be interesting. Still, him showing up was quite something already and I can't wait for the next episode!

I have a feeling that Bananas will be able to win this season again (also, he's with Nany and I think they're setting up Nany as this season's winner, with everything about her mum) cause he doesn't have a lot of enemies. But overall, I'm digging the season and I like a lot of people (which doesn't happen often) so... Let's see. Let me know what you thought of this episode and what are your predictions and I'll see you in the next one!

Love,

Daniela.

The Challenge: Ride or Dies | Season 38 Episode 1 - "Don't Die for Me, Argentina"

Spoiler Alert!

Hello people!

Back for a new main season of The Challenge and I gotta say, I'm pretty stoked about this one!

There's a lot of familiar faces, which is nice, but at the same time, a lot of those people I'm not a huge fan of so... There's that. What really gets me excited about this season (and I'm going to start with the end) is that Bananas is back! He has been away from The Challenge for the past 2 seasons (not counting the special ones such as USA and All Stars) and I've missed him. You don't know how happy I was when I saw him and Nany get into The Zone after the elimination! It was amazing! And that's going to shake things up for sure!

But let's talk about some of the teams and the actual challenges.

So, there's a lot of new players, which I liked most of them - Analyse & Tommy look pretty strong, Colleen and Kim seem fun and, obviously, Johnny and Ravyn won the daily challenge which not only lets us know that they are a pretty good team, but also turns the tables and, for once, the Vets are not in control - a rookie/rookie pair won and, obviously, they are going to save the rookies and target the vets. However, there's a twist, of course.

As I said, Johnny and Ravyn won and so they're safe from elimination and will choose 4 teams to interrogate. From those 4 teams they pick one to go straight into elimination, which is only revealed at the actual elimination. In this case the teams that they picked were Kailah & Sam, Colleen & Kim, Jakk & Laurel, Devin & Tori. And their pick to go straight into elimination was Kailah and Sam, which would be my pick as well. Then, comes the twist!

The other teams are not safe yet and have to go to a Draw, where they take some daggers from a stone and, initially, the first two teams (Jakk & Laurel, Tori & Devin) take out a dagger that doesn't say anything which they assume means they're safe. Well, that's until Colleen and Kim take out their dagger and theirs have written on it SAFE which means they are the ones safe and then, of course, TJ comes with another twist - Colleen & Kim (aka the ones that are safe) pick another team to save and which one goes into elimination against, in this case, Kailah and Sam. Well, they ended up saving Jakk & Laurel and sending into elimination Tori & Devin which not only isn't what I wanted but I don't think I would do that either because Jakk talked a lot of sh*t about Colleen in this episode and, I know she doesn't know, but she still saved him so... Curious, but okay...

And so, the elimination was Kailah & Sam against Tori & Devin - needless to say that I was obviously rooting for Tori and Devin. And actually, Tori and Devin smashed Kailah and Sam... I was actually curious to see more of Sam, to be honest, but I just don't like Kailah so... I'm fine with how this turned out.

After that, the big moment - Bananas and Nany come into the game! What's even more fun about all of this is that they're not the only ones to arrive 'late' in the game - we know Jordan & Aneesa will come as well as Darrell & Veronic so that's going to be fun! Oh, and I completely forgot to mention and Kaycee and Kenny (her brother) had to leave the game just before the daily challenge and, because of that, they brought in Nam and Emmy (a friend of his) which is better, in my opinion. 

I guess that's pretty much it for this first episode! I'm pretty stoked to see what happens in the next episodes, mainly because I know Bananas will stir the pot (I'm curious about the dynamic between him and Devin because they weren't a fan of each other in the past but since then I've started liking Devin so... let's see how this plays out). 

Anyway, let me know your thoughts and predictions for this new season and I'll talk to you in the next episode!

Love,

Daniela.

The Challenge: USA | Season 1 Episode 11 - "Home Of The Brave"

Spoiler Alert!

Hello people!

So here I am for the final episode of The Challenge: USA, and what an episode this was! I was sort of afraid that, because they were putting everything in just one big episode (the final daily challenge, final elimination and actual final) that it wouldn't be as exciting or it would be kind of messy. Well, it actually pretty great and had so many things and twists that I was not expecting!

Let's get the first part of the episode out of the way and talk about the first thing that I wasn't expecting!

First of all, this last daily challenge was an overnight one, which doesn't happen that often on the challenge. They usually have an overnight bit in the actual final, but not an overnight daily challenge - and certainly not one this close to the final. In a way, I thought it was perfect that they did this so close to the final because it was the perfect tast of the final. Besides that, it was also super surprising the outcome of it all. Tyson and Domenick tied for first place and, because there wasn't a tie breaker, they ended up both winning, alongside Sarah - this last bit really not what I wanted... And on top of that, Angela lost and went straight into elimination. Again, not what I wanted...

When it comes to the nominations, we knew this would be between Alyssa and someone from Sarah's alliance - it was Cayla. Tyson picked Cayla, Sarah picked Alyssa and Domenick ended up being the tie breaker and he went with Alyssa. I actually thought it would go Angela's way (aka not Alyssa) but it kind of worked in her favor because this elimination was a Pole Wrestle and, let's be honest - Alyssa was the easiest to beat, which was exactly what happened.

Moving on to the actual final, as soon as they got the place where the final would happen, Ben was imediatly disqualified because of a medical injury, which was so unfortunate! As you knew, he was my favourite to win and have him go home right away, without even starting the final... It was really sad.

Then, not even 30 minutes into the first leg of the final, Enzo quits... And because he was paired with Desi, Desi was disqualified as well, which was awful! I felt so bad for Desi and I felt so mad at Enzo - this is why all the girls wanted to send him home. I admit, I was rooting for him last episode, but after this... I really regret it, honestly! I'm sure David would've done better - at least, in this first part of the final.

But let's move to some nice things. I was so surprised to see Danny win multiple of the legs and, for a long time, he was ahead in terms of points. Tyson ended up almost catching to him but Danny did great most of the time and I so surprised with that! Then, we get to the overnight part of the final and things take another turn!

I kind of forgot to mention but, because Ben was DQed, one girl had to be alone each leg of the final. In this overnight bit it was Angela. The challenge basically was to carry a bunch of dirt and one person would do that while the other would sleep, and then they would switch. Well, because Angela was alone, she couldn't switch. With that in mind, she decided that she would take the least amount of points and just went to sleep. In the moment I kind of thought that was a nice strategy, but then I started thinking and, the thing is - she didn't sleep a bit and kept moving dirt, no. She just basically 'gave up', and that ended up biting her in the ass. The next morning, when TJ arrived, he told Angela that she basically quit and so, she was DQed. That was another surprising moment but I guess it makes sense. I was just kind of bummed because I also sort of wanted her to win.

Well, like there wasn't enough people out of the game, when it got the the individual bit and they had to actually climb the mountain (and do some puzzles as well) things got pretty grim and Tyson, Domenick, Justine and Cayla quit! I was shocked honestly! Mainly with Tyson because he was so head and he talked such a big game and then... He just quit. I was also surprised with Cayla because, as soon as she got to the Sudoku, she got really excited because she was good at it, but I guess the cold was just too much and she wasn't able to do it... Everything about this final really was so shocking to me! Either the final was really hard, or these people just weren't prepared for a final.

In the end, Danny and Sarah were the only one to actually finish the final. therefore The Winners! Danny winning was great, actually! I never really thought he was going to be the one winning (I always thought it was going to be Tyson, honestly) but I was super happy with that! The same can't be said with Sarah winning. I just don't like her... So I'm not going to say anything else.

So I guess that's it from me. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this season and with this final and I can't wait to see all the other versions of this from all the other countries! Plus, Season 38 of the main show is coming back in October so... A lot more rants are coming so, stay tuned!

Let me know what you thought of this final, the winners and the season overall and I'll talk to you very soon!

Love,

Daniela.

The Challenge: USA | Season 1 Episode 10 - "Pleadges of Allegiance"

Spoiler Alert!

Hello people!

I know I'm super late with this rant but I had such a busy week last week that it was completely impossible for me to watch the episode. But I'm here now so let's get to it.

This is the last episode before the final so it was a little bit surprising the fact that this was just a normal male elimination week. I really thought it would be either a male and female one or they would do a Purge - which they haven't done in this season yet. But I was wrong.

The daily challenge was an interesting one. It looked fairly easy but, somehow, only one person could finish it. It was sort of hard to strategize for this one, I'll give them that. But ultimately, the winners used the best approach (which was also my first thought when I tried to think what would I do myself) - just put the initial pins in the bottom, for the feet and then go from there. And so, the only one to finish was Angela and the guy that got the fardest was Ben - a nice pairing. I also gotta say that this solidified Angela as a great competitor, for me. Up until now I really thought she just got lucky in that first challenge and then people made a huge deal about her, but she has won a few daily challenges and this one was just amazing what she did so... I'm on board with her winning the game (for the girls).

Anyway, moving on to the nominations... The guy that got last place was David, so he went straight into elimination, and Ben and Angela's choice was pretty obvious - Enzo. He's the only one (apart from David) not in their group. However, Ben is good friends with Enzo so he didn't want to send him. Well, ultimately, it was the right choice, so Enzo it was. That didn't mean I wasn't rooting for him though... 

And as far as the elimination goes, it was kind of a hard one and it went for 5 rounds and it was visible that they were so gassed out. It was tied for a long time but Enzo got it in the last round and yeah, he won! That's not the best case scenario for Ben and Angela, but it was what I wanted so... I'm happy with everything that happened in this episode.

The next one, as I said, is the final but there's also a female elimination so... I don't know how that's going to work but I'm curious. I hope Sarah goes home and I hope Angela and Ben win the whole thing. I wouldn't mind Tyson either, but I think I prefer Ben.

I know the episode is out already so, no spoilers. Also, if you haven't seen it yet, let me know who you want to win and I'll talk to you pretty soon with that final episode!

Love,

Daniela.